Sick Days
by Glacey
Summary: For once in his life Red gets sick. What will he end up doing? RedxGreen GreenxRed Originalshipping


With a barely audible moan, Red rolled over and buried his face into his pillow. It wasn't often he felt gravity's effects on his body when encased in a warm and comfortable bed. Then again, it wasn't very often he slept in a real bed. To stretch out his aching body comfortably without fear of a cold breeze to send a ripple over his chapped skin was simply wonderful. Clean sheets, a fuzzy pillow to snuggle with (oh wait, that was Pikachu), and his lover to share body heat with was one of the simple joys Red had discovered when staying in Viridian. Now if only he could get gravity to release its iron grip on his achy body.

Green had gotten up about an hour ago. He'd had trouble with gravity too Red noticed. The gym leader had slammed his fist on the snooze alarm about four times before Eevee finally hauled him out of bed with a sharp, authoritative chirp. She wanted breakfast and she wanted it now.

With a groan, Red pushed himself to his knees, the blankets slipping off his body to crumple around him. He blinked a few times before he pushed a few locks of ebony hair out of his eyes and slid off of the mattress. His body protested at once to the movement. His head started first, throbbing and pulsing behind his seemingly empty eyes. His throat was next. It was dry and raspy; this wasn't unusual but he was more keenly aware of it today.

His stomach felt strange as well. This too wasn't unusual. Whenever he came down from his high elevation on Mt. Silver it usually took his body about half a day to adjust to the lower elevation. He generally ignored it and the problem went away. Like his throat, he was just more aware of it today.

His body finished up the rest of the complaints. Aching and sore, his bones demanded that he go straight back to bed and back to sleep. Gravity was in control today; let his heavy limbs become light as air and his breath as soft as clouds. His pokemon could wait, Green would look after them.

Red sighed and grabbed his jeans, discarded after changing into pajamas sometime late last night. Pikachu watched him sleepily as Red struggled into his pants, one tree stump at a time. Perking up, the electric mouse quickly noticed Red's sluggish behavior and leapt out of bed to examine its trainer more thoroughly. After watching Red struggle with a T-shirt for a few minutes, the pokemon left the room and went in search of Green.

Red finally put his shirt on correctly and plodded out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen. It was a bit difficult to walk straight since the light of the early morning was obnoxiously bright. In the kitchen Green was already at work chopping vegetables and prepping breakfast for the batch of pokemon waiting outside. At his feet, tugging on his pants was Pikachu, pleading with the trainer to go and check on Red.

"Morning." Green yawned as Red helped himself to the fridge. "Pikachu, knock it off." He nudged the mouse with his foot.

Red grabbed a bottle from the shelf without bothering to look at the labels before he then quickly shut the door as shivers raced up spine. He nodded his greeting before uncapping the bottle and taking a sip, hardly taking note of the taste.

"There's coffee on the counter and I think there's leftover…" Green's voice trailed off as he turned around. "Uh Red."

Red paused, lowering the bottle in confusion. Green was looking at him with concern and mild amusement. He raised one eyebrow in question.

"That's….the iron supplement I give Rhydon." Green said slowly. That stuff was not recommended for human consumption. Red looked at the label and blinked. So it was. "Why are you…?" The gym leader noticed Red's glassy look and flushed face and set the knife down. "You ok?" He asked walking over to place a hand on Red's forehead.

Red nodded and sidestepped Green. He wasn't sick, just tired. Even if he was, that didn't mean he could toss aside his responsibilities. He had a pokemon team to look after and then after that a small meeting to attend in Pallet Town this afternoon. It was mostly the reason Red had come down from Mt. Silver this time around.

"You don't look ok." Green informed him.

Red ignored that and went about his business of prepping pokemon food and seeing to his team. Green let him but he could feel the gym leader's eyes boring holes into the back of his head as he worked. Once this was done and his pokemon were content he went back inside to eat breakfast. Well he attempted to anyway. His stomach was still churning so he skipped the meal and headed straight for the shower. Once he was clean and dressed properly, he got ready to go.

Green watched as Red led Charizard to the front yard. He wasn't pleased with the fact that Red still intended to go to the meeting when the young man was clearly unwell. However, he wasn't about to play nursemaid either. "Let me know if I have to bring your ass home." He told the scarlet eyed boy as he climbed up onto Charizard's shoulders.

Red nodded before the pokemon spread its wings and took off into the sky. Pulling his red and white jersey closer to his body, he hunkered down to brave the short trip through the crisp air to Pallet Town.

Red wasn't sure how he got through the rest of the day. To be honest it felt like he was watching a long movie that he only vaguely remembered and what he did was fuzzy and distorted. Luckily all he really had to do was smile and nod and pretend to pay attention.

It was only when Professor Oak tapped him on the shoulder and point out that the meeting was over did Red realize that time had passed. Blinking, he stood up from his seat and rubbed his eyes.

"Are you feeling all right Red?" Oak asked. Red nodded but his head felt like it weighed an extra four pounds. The strain made his neck ache and he rubbed it, wishing he had stayed in bed rather than come to this pointless meeting.

Green's grandfather placed a cool hand on Red's flushed face. "I may not be a medical expert but you're feeling rather warm." He murmured. "Perhaps you ought to head home and rest."

Red nodded in drowsy agreement. Pulling away from the Professor, Red mumbled his goodbye and made his way outside. Charizard only had to look at him to understand that Red wanted to go back to Green's and not to his mother's house. It seemed the fire type was more than aware of its trainer's condition but knew better than to try and convince him to stay home.

iWhere am I?/i

"103.5 degrees. What were you thinking you moron?" Green's voice scolded from somewhere above him in the realm of alertness. Red heard a heavy sigh before something cool was placed on his forehead. It slipped beneath the sweaty mass of hair that was sticking to his forehead and offered a refreshing, cooling alternative.

iThat feels really good./i

He heard a clinking noise and the gentle splash of water. "Make sure he doesn't get out of bed." Green ordered. Who was he talking to? Was there somebody else here with him? Had Professor Oak followed him back to Viridian? "I'll be right back." Green's footsteps faded away.

iWait! Come back!/i

Red's eyes opened wearily. For a second nothing looked right; it was all blurry. Then the room righted itself and he blinked. The ceiling he had become accustomed to while staying at Green's, stared back at him. Turning his head, Green's room entered his vision before a bright yellow concerned Pikachu face blocked everything. Said Pikachu grinned when it saw him, pleased to see he was awake.

Covering a cough, Red sat up, stifling any groans his body gave off. Something wet slipped off his forehead and landed in his lap. He looked down and discovered a neatly folded if not soaking wet washrag. He picked it up and immediately held it up against his burning face. It was a temporary relief but Red didn't care. It felt fantastic.

"You know, if you feel like shit you could have said something." Red lowered the rag to see Green walk back into the room, a bottle of pills in one hand, a glass of water in the other. "I'm sure the guys at the meeting would've understood." He handed Red the glass and fished out two nasty looking ponyta pills. "Take these and go back to sleep. Gramps said you should stay in bed for a few days."

Red took the glass but he didn't drink it. Instead he let the cool moist glass sooth his sweaty hands. He hesitated when he saw the pills; he'd never liked taking medicine and those pills were huge.

Green saw the look and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not helping you take those." He informed the sick trainer. "Now take em and stop making your team worry. They're fogging up my window."

iHuh? /i

Red looked and low and behold his entire pokemon team was staring at him through Green's bedroom window. They had been watching him rather intently and were cheered to see him sitting up, let alone looking at them. Red gave them a tired wave before he submitted to Green's glare and took the medicine.

He lay down again, exhaustion sweeping over his body. He so rarely got sick he kept forgetting what a nuisance it was. As a child he'd hated spending time alone in his room while he battled with an invisible enemy. As his mother couldn't afford to take a whole day off from work, he'd spent maybe half a day at most by himself. It had been difficult to get any proper rest during those lonely hours. Closing his eyes, he hoped he'd grown out of that, he prepared to get some sleep.

He felt Green smooth back his sweaty bangs before Red felt the gym leader's weight leave the bed. Red cracked his eyes open to see Green pick up the empty glass from the bedside table. This bothered him greatly.

"Don't go."

Surprised, Green turned to see Red reach out to snag the edge of his shirt, his grip so much weaker than it normally was. There was a childish plea in Red's eyes as he clung to Green's clothes.

Sighing, Red was never this needy; Green sat back down on the bed. "I'm not going anywhere." He murmured. Red nodded but his grip never slackened. "Get some rest Red. I won't leave you."

"…Promise?"

"Yeah."


End file.
